Welcome to .txtLAB, a laboratory for cultural analytics at McGill University directed by Andrew Piper. We explore the use of computational and quantitative approaches towards understanding literature and culture in both the past and present. Our aim is to engage in critical and creative uses of the tools of network science, machine learning, or image processing to think about language, literature, and culture at both large and small scale.

Why do book reviews still treat women like it’s the 19th Century?

I have a new piece out with my collaborator Richard Jean So at The New Republic that explores gender bias in book reviews. Looking at a sample of 10,000 book reviews published in The New York Times since 2000, we found a disappointing story about how reviews of women’s books overwhelmingly skew towards family and emotion-centered language.

Although recent work counting bylines has shown that women are gradually becoming better represented within review organs, our work shows that how we talk about women as writers has largely remained unchanged. As we argue in our piece, the real take-away is that quantitative representation isn’t enough. We need to change assumptions about what men and women can be experts on. That starts with publishing decisions but extends through a book’s reception in the media. Things aren’t getting better and need to change.